Disney Days - Return to the Magic Kingdom

  Today was another magical day.  We started off very early because we had dinner reservations at 8am and using the bus it takes an hour to get there from door to door.  We are not usually breakfast people but it was a character breakfast with Lilo and Stitch and the boys have been talking about meeting Stitch for weeks.  Of course my boys, like me, are night owls so they were more reserved this morning than they were when we met Pooh and his friends.  But the boys did wake up a little after we ate and they joined the kids parade around the restaurant.

Nana and Will at breakfast

Hugging Stitch (Poor Charlie can't get in!)

Jon loves Lilo

Nana kisses!

All the kids with Stitch

  After breakfast it was a short boat ride to the Magic Kingdom and we arrived a little after 9.  We immediately headed over to Princess Hall where all three boys were eager to meet Anna and Elsa.  Charlie is crazy about Frozen (He sings all the songs!) and Anna and Elsa are the boys favorite princesses.  But when we arrived we found that there was a five hour line.  Five hours!!  The park staff told us that this was typical and that the fast passes were booked out through August.  Poor Charlie started to cry when we told him we wouldn't be meeting Elsa but there was no way we could wait for that long.  

  Since the princesses weren't an option we took the boys over to Tomorrowland where we went on a bunch of rides.  Will's favorite was the Stitch Escape and he insisted we go on that one first.  Afterwards Jon bought his souvenir, a big soft stuffed Stitch.  Jon loved him and carried him around all day, even bringing him on some of the rides.  Another favorite was the Monster's Inc comedy show which was very well done.  We all enjoyed it and Charlie too loved laughing at all the jokes.  His loud laugh echoed around the room a few seconds after everyone else had finished which was pretty cute.

Jon pushes his (brave!) Nana through the park

Watching the Monster's Inc show with Stitch

Will driving a car on the Speedway.  He did great!!  I was so impressed.

  By the time we were done with Tomorrowland it was starting to get hot and very humid so James and I took the kids home for a couple hours.  One of the benefits of getting in so early is that we could skip the hottest part of the day and still spend a ton of time in the park.  Getting out that early is tough for us but it was worth it!  Noel, Greg and Diana weren't done with the park so they stayed to go on some more rides.  On our way out we stopped to get Will his souvenirs, a collection of pirate paraphernalia.  

Stitch riding the bus

Will with his ball & chain, handcuffs and pirate pistol

Jon's very loose tooth that was almost knocked out last night

  Once back at our hotel we had lunch and a nice air-conditioned rest before we hit the pool.  The boys are little fish!  They love to swim, especially underwater.  Will and Jon practiced swimming, did underwater flips and did cannonballs.  One of the best things about the Disney pools is that they let kids jump off the edge of the pool, so few hotel or public pools allow it and it is so much fun!  Of course Charlie wanted to jump off the edge too.  Because of the other night’s… incident, we were really concerned about him swallowing too much water so we tried to teach him how to hold his breath.  He would hold his nose and close his mouth but right before he jumped, Charlie would let go of his nose and flash a huge grin.  If James or I caught him, he would get mad and yell "I wanna go under!"  Even though his mouth was open, Charlie must have been holding his breath because he didn't have any problems today.  

  Camille hadn't joined us for the early breakfast and trip to the park but she came with us when we returned in the afternoon.  Unfortunately, Noel, Greg and Diana were done with the Magic Kingdom by the time we were ready to head back.  I was disappointed to miss the time with them but I was glad they had the opportunity to go on their favorite rides.  

Will was tired and red eyed from swimming

Part of a Disney parade

Charlie hadn't napped at the hotel (despite our best efforts) and he fell asleep as soon as the bus got moving.  He stayed asleep the whole way to the park and all through dinner.  He did wake up in time for rides though.  Since tonight was our last night at Disney we all got to pick our favorite rides, the ones we didn't want to miss.  James and Charlie's favorite ride is the Pirates of the Caribbean and that is the first one we went on.  Charlie was so excited, "I wanna see pirates!  I'm gunna fight 'em!"  He was mad when we got off the boat because he wanted to go again.  

Charlie sleeps through dinner

Pirates of the Caribbean bot

  Jon had two favorites, his first was the Thunder Mtn. Railroad roller coaster which he went on with Daddy.  James doesn't usually go on roller coasters and he asked Jon to help him stay brave.  Jon replied, "No!  I want you to say 'I'm gunna die!'".  That was what Diana had said when we were on it yesterday which greatly amused Jon.  Both James and Jon enjoyed the coaster and Jon would have gone on it a third time if the wait wasn't so long.  

  While they were on the ride Camille and I took Will and Charlie to a small play area for two to five year olds.  Charlie will be three in July but he seemed too old for the play area.  All the other kids were going though the little house and going nicely down the slide but he was running up the slide and climbing up the outside of the house.  I blame his big (foster) brothers.  Will was disappointed that he was too big to play so instead he sat outside the playhouse with Stitch and played very gently and kindly with some of the little kids.  It was really sweet and I was so proud of him.

It was starting to get late and we still had three rides we wanted to go on.  Will’s favorite ride was Stitch’s Great Escape and Jon really wanted to see the Philharmagic show again which he called “Unbehaving Donald Duck.”  So I took Will to Stitch while James and Camille took Jon and Charlie to the show.  Then we all met up to go on our very last ride, Peter Pan.  The line was long but short enough that we would still have time to meet Noel, Greg and Diana for the fireworks.  But just as we got to the very front of the line, they stopped the ride.  I don't know if it was down or if someone needed help getting on but in those five minutes a ton of people arrived with a fast pass for the ride so we had to wait even longer.  It was not worth it.  

Waiting in line

Tripple piggyback

  By the time we got off Peter Pan we only had a few minutes to get to Noel, Greg and Diana who had saved a spot for us at the fireworks.  Charlie had been a little terror in the line so James and Camille took him home while Will, Jon and I ran through the dark and crowded park.  I had almost given up hope of finding them in the crowd but we made it just as the light show started.  It was amazing!  The castle was used as a giant screen for a beautiful light show set to music.  And afterwards they set off fireworks behind the castle which was incredible.

  Getting out of the park took a while because of the crowds and when we arrived home Will found a surprise.  Daddy had bought him a Stitch!  Will was very happy because he had been regretting his souvenir choice all day.  James had also bought Charlie a Tigger pillow which was really soft.  

  And that was almost it for our trip.  But one of our regrets was that because of our schedule, Noel didn't get much of a chance to take the boys out for some Nana time.  So at midnight James went to ask about staying for one more night.  The hotel set it up but in order to not be room-less tomorrow, they asked us to move right then.  It was a huge pain but I think it will be worth it.  

One more day!